India got off to a disappointing start in the Sudirman Cup badminton tournament as they went down 1-4 to Chinese Taipei in their opening Group C match here on Sunday. Indian players including PV Sindhu gave a tough fight to their rivals but failed to get favorable results. Indian mixed doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and K Sai Prateek made a positive start by winning the first game but lost 21-18 24-26 6-21 to Yang Po Huan and Hu Ling Feng in the end.
World number nine HS Prannoy was unable to match his best in the men’s singles as he lost 19-21, 15-21 to world number five Chou Tien Chen. This left India behind 0-2. The task of getting India back on track was now on Sindhu but despite giving a tough fight to world number one Tai Tzu Ying, she could not win. The 27-year-old Sindhu, who hails from Hyderabad, made a good comeback in the women’s singles match by winning the second game. He then gave a tough fight to his opponent in the third and deciding game. Tai Tzu won the match 21-14 18-21 21-17 in one hour and four minutes.
With this, Chinese Taipei took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty then gave a tough fight to Li Yang and Ye Hong Wei in the men’s doubles match before going down 13-21 21-17 18-21 to leave India trailing 0-4. Went. World number 17 women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and P Gayatri Gopichand then showed tremendous composure and recovered from a first game loss to beat Lee Chia Hsien and Teng Chun Soon 21-15 18-21 13-21 Did not allow Chinese Taipei to clean sweep.
India will take on Malaysia, the reigning Commonwealth Games mixed team champions, in their second Group C encounter on Monday. Malaysia topped the group after beating Australia 5-0 in their opening match on Sunday. Sindhu last defeated Tai Tzu at the 2019 World Championships. It was her 18th overall defeat at the hands of the Chinese Taipei player. Tai Tzu looked the better player in the first game but Sindhu did well in the second game to take the match to a decider. At the start of the third and deciding game, both the players fought each other hard.
At one stage the score was tied at 6-6 but Tai Tzu soon took a 9-6 lead. Sindhu maintained her composure and leveled the scores again at 10-10. Her opponent, however, managed to hold a one-point lead at the interval. The Indian led 14-12 after the interval but a few errors at the net soon cost them dearly. Tai Tzu took advantage of this to lead 15-14 and when Sindhu’s shot went wide, the Chinese Taipei player extended her lead to 17-14. There was no looking back for Tai Xune after that as he grabbed five match points and sealed the match with a brilliant return.
